WHAT A WALK!Almost 150 walkers, HOME residents, volunteers, board members and staff all were on hand Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008 for Helping Others Make the Effort's first annual "Walk a Mile in My Shoes." An opportunity for those in the community to come together to break the cycle of homelessness in
Osceola County.
We began our day at Great Outdoor Days with staff at the site at 8 a.m. Cara Eule, Executive Director of HOME and Mary Downey, Development Associate, mapped out the course by driving around Osceola H
eritage Park about 20 times before making our decision (and confusing every parking attendant along the way!) The rest of the HOME staff arrived at 11 a.m. to help field registrations and HOME residents and storytellers — Lynn, Layka, Kiana, Jacquie and Betty showed up at noon to began decorating shirts with walkers and telling their story. Many volunteers and board members showed up during this time to also lend a hand!
When registration began at 1 p.m. it was a madhouse, but in a great fun sort of way (so maybe more like a funhouse!) We had limited space and tons of walkers, but were able to get tee shirts and goodie bags to walkers and everyone lined up by 2 p.m.
We began with a few photos and then we were off! After 7 minutes we realized that 1 mile only takes about 14 minutes for our incredibly in shape crew, so we altered our path and ended back up at the HOME tent at 2:35 for cookies and water. After a small wait, we were given our chance on stage and board member Gregg Hostetler gave a wonder
ful speech about homelessness in Osceola County.We hope that you had as much fun at "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" as we did and we can't wait for next year! It's going to be even bigger and better!
Thanks again to our wonderful sponsors!
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2 comments:
I had such a wonderful time at this walk!!! It was great to see so many people out for such a wonderful cause!!!
Annie
I agree! I teach 3rd grade at Kissimmee Elementary and I was very proud to see how many people in our community came out to help support our kids. It's sad how many people have been a victim of the economy! I was homeless for 3 months (after graduating college) until I was hired as a teacher, so I know first hand how situations can cause us to have a difficult time. That is why I made sure I was "walking a mile in others shoes". Keep up the great work!
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